POLICE have granted the National Vendors’ Union of Zimbabwe (Navuz) permission to march to Parliament to present a petition to legislators to stop government from evicting hawkers from undesignated sites.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
According to Superintendent Newbert Saunyama, Officer-in-Charge at Harare Central Police Station, vendors had been cleared to march from Rezende North Parkade open space to Julius Nyerere Way and Jason Moyo Avenue into Leopold Takawira Street into Nelson Mandela Avenue up to Parliament between 1pm and 2pm on June 24.
The government gave vendors up to June 26 to vacate undesignated selling points failure which they would be forcibly ejected.
“Your notification letter to conduct a march on to Parliament to hand in a petition over the government’s decision to remove vendors from the streets to designated zones on the 24th of June 2015 from 1300 hours to 1400 hours has been noted,” Saunyama said in a letter addressed to Navuz director Samuel Wadzai.
“Please confine your march to the above-stated route, venue and time outlined. We will monitor.”
In their petition currently circulating, Navuz was arguing that vending had now become the backbone of Zimbabwe’s ailing economy considering that more than two-thirds of household incomes in urban areas are derived from vending.
Navuz is appealing to Parliament to stop the evictions until all vendors have been allocated alternative vending space with affordable rates and all the necessary infrastructure including sanitation facilities.
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Over 100 000 vendors were estimated to be operating in Harare alone with several organisations claiming to represent them along partisan lines.
Zanu PF has been accused of trying to hijack and manipulate vendors following the formation of the ruling party-aligned shadowy Queen of Grace ZimAsset Trust that is organising clean-up campaigns and allegedly intimidating vendors to comply.
